Backrooms: The Creepy Internet Phenomenon, Explained

Director Kane Parsons, at just 20 years old, has made history as the youngest filmmaker to top the US box office with the release of "Backrooms." The independent studio A24 production achieved a remarkable opening weekend, earning $81 million domestically and a total of $118 million worldwide. This success propelled it to the top spot, surpassing even the latest Star Wars franchise film, "The Mandalorian and Grogu."

Despite its global success, the film had yet to be released in many international territories in the early weeks of June. Nevertheless, it has already shattered records, marking the strongest North American box office debut for an original horror movie and the best opening weekend for a first-time filmmaker with a non-franchise project. This remarkable achievement is largely fueled by the film's roots in a viral internet phenomenon that itself evokes a sense of an endless, disorienting maze.

The "Backrooms" phenomenon began over a decade ago with a photograph of an empty office space. The image gained traction on various message boards, and in May 2019, it was posted on 4chan. A reply to this post coined the name "Backrooms" and described the terrifying experience of "noclipping" out of reality into a vast, unsettling labyrinth of rooms. The post warned of the "stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz," and the potential for unseen entities.

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If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in.

"Noclipping," a term borrowed from video games where players can pass through solid objects, has been adopted in internet urban legends to describe accidentally glitching out of reality into hidden dimensions. The "Backrooms" concept is a prime example of creepypasta, a horror subgenre of internet slang where text blocks go viral through copying and pasting. Users build upon these stories, creating digital urban legends and paranormal narratives. This has led to countless fans contributing to the mythos by posting related images on Reddit, writing fanfiction, and developing games for platforms like Steam. Even Dan Erickson, creator of the series "Severance," has acknowledged the influence of the "Backrooms" on his own creation of an uncanny, never-ending office space.

Parsons himself was a significant contributor to the "Backrooms" mythos before directing the film. As a teenager, he honed his skills as a YouTuber, starting with "Minecraft" Let's Play videos at age 9. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, he learned 3D graphics software Blender to create animated "Backrooms" environments for his own viral web series. His 2019 short film, "The Backrooms (Found Footage)," has garnered over 80 million views on his YouTube channel, Kane Pixels, depicting a young filmmaker's accidental journey into the eerie, endless corridors.

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God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.